Anti-Semitism in the European Union:
Italy

(Updated December 2003)

The 35,000 Jews, of whom 25,000 are members of the
various Jewish communities, are completely integrated into the Italian
population (total population: 56.3 million). Since the Second World
War, anti-Semitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms; violent attacks have been rare.
However, with the increase in the number of far-right groups since the
beginning of the 1990s, the picture has altered. Although anti-Semitic
traditions are hardly virulent in Italian society, the networking of
the international far-right scene, which uses anti-Semitism to create
such networks, has also led to a strong anti-Semitic orientation in
the Italian far-right spectrum. In 1995 anti-Semitic incidents rose
from 30 to 50 a year; since the middle of 2000 (30-40% rise) to March-April
2002 a sharp increase of 100% has been recorded. In the first instance
this is due to the conflict in the Middle East. However, besides this
factor, a high level of xenophobic attitudes and views is noticeable
in the population, which are supported in turn by racist remarks in
public discourse (politics and print media). Above all the socially
marginalized working migrants, numbering ca. 700,000 (510,000 migrants
mainly from Morocco, Tunisia and Albania), are affected. During the
1990s, not only Jewish culture itself but also the history of Israel,
its literature and cinema enjoyed a period of success in Italy, a surprising
development for those who had experienced the troubled years of the
1970s and 1980s in which anti-Israeli resentment was virulent, particularly
on the left. The crisis that started at the turn into 2001 has accelerated
an unforeseen and unpredictable process that in other countries, especially
in France, is already evident; in Italy, this process has left a number
of options open for the future and these are not immediately clear.
In Italy, the second Intifada has set in motion unexpected mechanisms,
whereby traditional anti-Jewish prejudices are mixed with politically
based stereotypes. It is important to bear in mind that the so-called
spiritual (or psychological) anti-Semitism has had a greater
impact on the overall phenomenon in Italian cultural history during
the course of the 20th century (see Julius Evola).

In contrast to France and Belgium, anti-Semitic attacks in Italy have
up to now been limited to verbal abuse, graffiti and the like. But since
the start of the second Intifada incidents now include death threats
against Jews and carry both anti-Semitic as well as anti-Israeli stereotypes,
often in a synonymous context. The perpetrators are local Italians and
till now, in contrast to Belgium, France and the Netherlands, hardly
any person from the milieu of Muslim migrants. In contrast to other
countries, in Italy there is rather a revival of anti-Judaist topoi
coupled with traditional anti-Semitic and Anti-Zionist stereotypes rooted
in the left. It became particularly visible during the events, which
took place at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. The worsening of
the Israeli-Arab conflict and, in particular, the question of Bethlehem
and the Church of the Nativity once again led to ambiguous positions
being taken in some contexts and witnessed the use of potentially dangerous
language.

1. Physical acts of violence

There were a few attacks at the beginning of the year, for example in
January, a Jewish lawyer was attacked came in his office by two thugs
who hit him with a club on his head and shoulders. It appears that right-wing
extremists were responsible for this attack. A number of the incidents
occurred in April, but in the following months there was a reduction.
The incidents recorded coincided with the heightening in international
tension, thus creating entirely predictable peaks. Italian commentators
assess that the rise in the scope of anti-Semitism is the result of
Israels governmental policy towards the Arabs since the outbreak
of the Intifada.

There are however some exceptions. These can be linked to the specific
Italian situation and there is often the feeling that the lack of public
attention or dwindling of public interest in such incidents is the result
of the national political situation, its internal crisis and the strong
political divisions between government and opposition parties, a factor
exerting a severe impact on different spheres of public life. Demonstrations,
marches and other political actions were recorded at the end of March,
but without doubt the climax was reached in the period beginning with
the Israeli occupation of Bethlehem, the stalemate at the Church of
Nativity (2 April) and the attack against Jenin refugee camp (10 April).
By the end of April tension as well as media attention had again decreased,
leaving behind a few consequences and some rather feeble polemics.

4 April: destruction of the research work and the archives on the Holocaust
and the resistance created by the students of Liceo Galileo Ferraris
High School in Varese, where billboards were destroyed and the school
walls were painted in red with graffiti such as burn the Jews.
Varese belongs to one of the strongholds of far-right groups in Italy,
especially right-wing skinheads.

2 June: some newspapers reported that two right-wing extremists were
arrested for planning an attack in the Venice ghetto. In addition, powerful
weapons and a map with the borders of the Venice ghetto clearly marked
were seized.

2. Verbal aggression/hate speech

Politics

On 2 April some Jews from Rome staged a protest in front of the headquarters
of the political party Rifondazione Comunista. Although peaceful, the
protest still caused some trouble with passers-by: some passing cars
reacted to the traffic jam in Corso Italia by shouting anti-Semitic
slogans at the protesters. During an event organised by the Social Forum
of Bologna in support of the Palestinians, the recurrent words against
Israel were genocide; deportation; fanatic
and racist Zionists and these were accompanied by the proposal
for a vast boycott of Israeli products, which could be associated
to genocide.

The period in question has been marked by a long and bitter dispute
between the trade unions and the government over a proposed revision
of a decree stipulating the cancellation of Article 18 of the Workers
Statute. This crisis resulted in a general strike (16 April), overlapping
exactly with the week in which the Middle East crisis reached its climax.
During the strike and the accompanying street demonstrations and on
the Liberation Day celebrations (25 April), the empathy generated by
pro-Palestinian sentiments overtook the trade union issues or historical
affiliations which had rallied thousands to protest in the squares,
transforming, in some cases but not all, the above events into forms
of explicit anti-Israeli propaganda.

4 April: Rifondazione Comunista opened its national congress. Some observers
were struck by the opening of the conference: a video showing images
of a Palestinian child being protected in vain by his father from shooting
(stills from the video have also been placed on a whole series of international
far-right websites inferring that the child has been shot by Israeli
soldiers) was screened together with a scene from the film Roma città
aperta (Rome, an Open City). The scene from the film shows a Nazi soldier
shooting the actress Anna Magnani with a machine gun. The secretary-general
of the party, preoccupied by the reactions to the partys marked
pro-Palestinian policy, closed the congress three days later, saying
that the party supported all minorities and proclaimed: We are
Jews. During the congress, a number of objects explicitly referred
to Palestine: the Palestinian flag, a book by the representative of
the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Italy, Diario segreto (Secret
Diary; with a foreword by a former President of Italy), as well as other
texts by Palestinian leaders and the kefiah, the traditional Arab head
gear. During the general strike on 16 April, in Turin many demonstrators
were wearing the kefiah. The kefiah is also present in the Italian and
European far-right political movements. Some participants in pro-Palestinian
demonstrations openly displayed their radical attitude: they dressed
as suicide bombers with all the trappings.

6 April: an imposing crowd of anti-globalisation protesters marched
through Rome and young people dressed as kamikaze shouted slogans against
Israel. The leadership of the political parties Democratici di Sinistra
(Democrats of the Left) and Margherita dissociated themselves from the
protest, which had been promoted by all the trade unions and opposition
political parties; for the first time political parties on the left
split over issues relating to the Middle East. A number of banners directed
against Israel and the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon included the following
slogans: State of Israel, State of murderers; Sharon
executioner (with the Nazi S), Bush, Sharon,
Peres (with the S styled as a swastika); Zionists
and fascists are the terrorists; Against the racist terrorism
of USA, Europe and Israel, on the side of the Palestinian masses;
Holocaust, no thank you. Free Palestine; Palestinian
Holocaust, Europe, where are you?

Public discourse

25 April: the Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC)
was informed that during a demonstration in Milan marking the anniversary
of the liberation of Italy from the Nazis, many pro-Palestinian banners
were displayed, reading for example Murderers, Nazist Sharon,
Intifada until victory; others assimilated the Star of David to
the swastika or surrounded the star with barbed wire and broken by a
closed fist.

Graffiti

31 March: anti-Semitic graffiti and a swastika were found on a synagogue
in Modena.

7 April: anti-Semitic graffiti was found in several places in the old
Venice ghetto.

6 May: large graffiti in bold characters saying Jews murderers
was seen in an underground pass in the city of Prato (central Italy).
On the same day, the CDEC of Milan received an anonymous phone call
from someone who said, We will burn you all.

22 May: anti-Semitic slogans were written on the walls of the town of
Marrucini in Abruzzo. In addition, in Milan messages such as Jews
out of the neighbourhood re-appeared on public walls (Via Venini).

Media

There seems to be a return of abusive language towards Jews ; an example
of which is the use of the attribute perfidious when referring
to the Israeli government - a term that used to be in the Catholic Good
Friday prayers and was condemned by Pope John XXIII. There is an outpouring
of anti-Israel statements on state radio and television and also in
some Catholic circles, lamenting the deaths of Palestinians while glossing
over Israel deaths. It is absolutely essential to make a clear distinction
between the language used by the Pope and that, which appears in the
media and in the declarations of some Catholics. Even in some of the
politically moderate press there are scattered references to the murder
of Christ, showing that, after decades of absence, such stereotypes
are also being revived in secular circles.

3 April: the front page of the national daily newspaper La Stampa carried
a cartoon by Giorgio Forattini as a comment on the occupation of Bethlehem.
At the sight of an Israeli tank a baby Jesus in a crèche asks:
Are they going to kill me for a second time? A heated debate
followed in the papers. Many resentful letters were sent to the editor
and numerous Catholic readers filed protests. The president of the Union
of Jewish Communities, Amos Luzzatto, strongly criticised the return
of the accusation of deicide, cancelled by the Second Vatican Council.
The director of La Stampa distanced himself from the author of the cartoon.
The same day someone wrote Israelis Murderers on the walls
of a synagogue in Siena.

5 April: one of the main authorities of the state - the President of
the Senate - denounced what he described as the imbalance of Italian
public opinion in favour of only the cause of the Palestinians, thus
risking feeding an anti-Semitic campaign, of which we have had dangerous
and serious examples. The same day someone wrote Free Palestine
on the façade of the synagogue in Cuneo.

2 May: the daily La Nazione of Florence reported that some anti-Semitic
messages were written on a Catholic Church in the town of Gavinana outside
Florence, praising the Holocaust and the twenty years of fascist domination
in Italy.

The head of the Rome Jewish Community, Leone Paserman, stated, The
Italian mass media have started a disinformation campaign that nourishes
anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred.

On 12 April the famous Italian journalist and writer, Oriana Fallaci
published her condemnation of the media, the church, and the left and
their anti-Semitism in the weekly Panorama: I find it shameful
(...) that the government-controlled television stations contribute
to the revival of anti-Semitism by crying over Palestinian deaths only,
minimising the importance of Israeli deaths, speaking in a brisk and
dismissive tone about them. Fallacis condemnation and fiery indictment
was followed by a mostly controversial debate specially because she
is known as a controversial left-leaning journalist.

Direct threats

Renowned Jewish journalists have received threatening letters full of
insults as well. Some of them received up to fifty such e-mails during
the period monitored. Attacks against Jewish students by fellow pupils
in schools, at playgrounds and during sports competitions, such as calling
them names, including the use of the words Jew, dirty
Jew or Rabbi as insults, still persist, as does the
hanging of anti-Semitic slogans and banners in stadiums.

Indirect threats

Although they did not increase in the last few months, these remain
on a very high level, especially in connection with the football club
Lazio Rome.

Public discourse

Particularly interesting is the emergence, in the month of April, of
slogans and comments that referred to the current persecution of the
Palestine people by describing the Israeli-Arab conflict in terms of
the inversion of the victim/persecutor roles, with clear reference here
to the extermination of the Jews. Resorting to terms taken from Nazi
vocabulary, such as deportation, extermination, genocide etc., is a
constant practice and at times such terms are emphasised in newspapers
with very large titles or else they are used scornfully in commentaries.

The Internet

The website that can boast a larger number of participants
in their discussion list is that of the extreme right-wing militant
group Forza Nuova (New Force). Some of these sites  right-wing
or pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian (Lo Straniero Senza Nome,
Holy War, Radio Islam, Associazione Italia-Iraq,
Oltre la Verità Ufficiale)  make use of the
entire spectrum of anti-Semitic stereotypes and have placed the complete
text of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic
forgery from Tsarist Russia, on the net. The website of Fronte sociale
nazionale (National Social Front) carries a pro-Palestinian Intifada
appeal which adopts a traditional anti-Semitic, Anti-Zionist and anti-American
language with hostile references to Talmudic Judaism, the
global plutocratic cupola and the bleeding Star of David.
Many other sites deal with the subject of the so-called ritual murder
and the accusation of blood shedding; in others the denial of the Holocaust
is the central point. The website Che fare (What should be done), part
of the far left-wing groups, includes elements of Anti-Zionism, pro-Arab
fundamentalism, anti-Americanism and recurrent stereotypes against Jews
used both in the past and at the present: the Jewish lobby, the relationship
with the Masonry, the international plot, world economic power held
by Jews, Jews circumcised with a dollar etc. are all examples of the
most repeated slogans. It is difficult to know how many people visit
these websites as the figures cited seem to be enlarged, for they increase
remarkably over short periods to be credible. Between 20 and 29 July,
Alfred Olsen, member of a fundamentalist Catholic brotherhood, Holocaust
denier and responsible for the anti-Semitic website Holy War/Tradizione
Cattolica, submitted contributions to the online forum of the
daily La Stampa on nine occasions which combined anti-Judaist, traditional
anti-Semitic world conspiracy theories and Anti-Zionist stereotypes.

3. Research Studies

Among the various surveys carried out during the past few months, it
seems interesting to refer to the ones carried out by Ispo/ACNielsen
CRA, between 13 April and 13 May, part of which was published in Il
Corriere della Sera. The survey was inspired by the observation
that the rigid positions regarding who is right and who
is wrong in the Israeli-Arab conflict does not include any references
to the circumstances giving rise to the conflict. For instance, less
than half of the Italian population knows about the foundation of the
State of Israel. Only 4% have knowledge about the historical events
that preceded and to some extent explain the evolution of the conflict.
The level of knowledge does not change meaningfully when the political
position changes, although a greater number of both political far-right
and far-left supporters are less informed than those who are centre-right
and centre-left supporters.

Exactly one month after the above survey, Il Corriere della sera
published the results of a poll carried out at the beginning of April.
This second survey showed that the number of people who stated that
they had no idea about the situation had decreased, while the opinion
of the majority of the population blaming both parties for
the conflict remained stable and consolidated, although some people
on the political centre-left (11% against 6% overall) tended to mostly
blame the Israelis for the conflict. In addition, during the same period
sympathy for the Jewish state seemed to have grown and once
again this was linked to the political orientation of the surveyed.

Between 12 and 14 April, a further survey was carried out by Ispo/ACNielsen
CRA based on a sample of 5000 telephone interviews. The data has yet
to be fully processed. This survey asked respondents whether Italian
Jews have common characteristics distinguishing them from the rest of
the population: 54% of the interviewed still believe that Italian Jews
have distinct characteristics and 68% cited as proof a peculiar relationship
with money and a mentality and lifestyle different from those of other
Italians. In addition, there is growing number of people who think that
Italian Jews are not real Italians and that they should stop playing
the role of being a victim of a persecution that dates back fifty years.
In particular they mentioned: the need to speak less about the Holocaust;
the passage from being the victims of the past to becoming the persecutors
of today in the Israeli-Arab conflict; and that the Day of Memory (27
January) should not only be devoted to remembering the victims of the
Shoah, but also all the other victims of persecution in the 20th century.

The survey commissioned by the ADL between 9 and 29 September 2002
concerning European Attitudes towards Jews, Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli
Conflict (see Table: Report on Belgium) established that Italian
respondents assumed second place behind the Spanish in their agreement
to anti-Semitic statements. Next to Spain (72%) Italy also shows the
second highest agreement with the statement that Jews are more
loyal to Israel than to this country (58%) whereby 42 % agreed
to the statement Jews have too much power in the business world
which places Italy with France in third place after Spain and Belgium.

4. Good practices for reducing prejudice, violence and aggression

In the months prior to May 2002, good practices to combat anti-Semitism
included those numerous initiatives aimed at stimulating an often fragile
and poor historical memory organised all over the country on 27 January
to mark Memory Day, established by a legislative decree two years ago.
Trade unions organised public debates and initiatives in many regions
and provinces, showing an interest for a debate that had not received
much attention in the previous years within the trade union movement.
Beginning in the autumn of 2002, a training programme started in the
region of Lombardy that will continue through into 2003 and involve
the high schools of the city of Lecco and union delegates from companies
operating in the area. Issues to be dealt with are anti-Semitism and
the Shoah and the dignity of man. The provisional title is Considerate
se questo è un uomo (Consider if this is a man), taken from the
famous phrase by Primo Levi. Rather innovative in Italy, trips will
be organised to some of the symbolic places in Europe, from Prague to
Auschwitz and to Mostar, including the former Nazi concentration camp
Risiera di San Sabba in Trieste. The video Promesse (Promises), on tales
of Israeli and Palestinian children in war and their fears and hopes
beyond the usual stereotypes, had a remarkable impact on public opinion;
the video is useful for a balanced understanding of the dramatic situation
in the Middle East. Significantly, the video was distributed together
with a major weekly magazine, LEspresso, allowing more copies
to be circulated than would have otherwise been the case.

Another initiative aimed at reconciliation after the division that
occurred within the left-wing parties following the rally of 6 April
(see chronology) was a concert on 19 April at the Colosseum organised
by the Mayor of Rome, during which Israeli and Palestinian singers performed
in turn on stage. The proposal by the Radical Party to include the State
of Israel into the European Union does not seem to have met with the
interest of the other political parties. This proposal was also submitted
to all Regional Councils, but there, too, not much consensus was reached,
nor did it gain much exposure in the media.

There are quite a number of websites dealing with the issue of anti-Semitism
in both Europe and in Italy from a historical perspective, with particular
focus on the racial laws in Italy and its consequences. There are also
websites created for the specific purpose of countering the wave of
misunderstanding and of responding to media attacks against Israel,
at times with a certain partisan spirit but on the whole impartial in
judgment. An example of such a website is http://www.informazionecorretta.com/
which provides a wide range of sources. Another interesting site that
can be highlighted is the site of the confederated trade union UIL which,
starting from 23 May 2002, presents a position paper by the educational
department of the national secretariat of the union under the title:
Schools and the prevention of anti-Semitism.

5. Reactions by politicians and other opinion leaders

An appeal by the Israeli writer Abraham Yehoshua to establish a clear
boundary between Israel and Palestine, thereby encouraging a unilateral
withdrawal of Israel, was signed by prominent Italian writers from across
the political spectrum. Political leaders have condemned the anti-Semitic
tone of the demonstrations billed as promoting peace or Palestinian
rights. The imam of the Italian Islamic Community Abdul Hadi Palazzi
maintains contact to the Italian Jewish Community and preaches messages
of moderation and even friendship toward Israel.

15 April: some politicians from both the governing and opposition parties
called for an Israeli Day in Rome; the director of a pro-government
daily newspaper - Il Foglio (The Sheet) - acted as promoter of the event.
About 3000 people marched through the centre of the city carrying Israeli
flags. The participants included militants from a wide range of political
parties, acting individually and irrespective of their political affiliations.

25 April: during the manifestation of the day of liberation in Milan,
participated by about 200,000 people, the leader (general secretary)
of the main Italian trade union, Sergio Cofferati insisted to
fight any revisionism of history.

In September 2002 Gianfranco Fini, Deputy Prime Minister and leader
of Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), the former neo-fascist party,
excused himself during his visit to Israel in an interview with the
Israelian newspaper Haaretz for the anti-Jewish laws in
Italy. He said that he would accept historical responsibility for Fascist
crimes and would ask the forgiveness of The Jewish People.